All posts by Zaid Kriel: Columnist

Zaid Kriel is the Deputy Editor at the multi-award winning Leadership magazine. Being the Deputy Editor means he does all the work and his editor gets all the glory. So really all those awards actually belong to him. He is not bitter.
When not being bitter, Zaid likes to play copious amounts of videogames, an activity which thankfully doesn't annoy his wife. By writing about the 'art of gaming', he can justify the playing of the videogames as some kind of intellectual exercise.

Nintendo's Wii U launched last week, so that's all people want to hear about, but there was a few other things that happened as well. Here’s a breakdown of all the news that matters over the past week.
Monday 26 November - Wii U shortages
In its first week on sale in the US, the Wii U has moved some 400 000 units. Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime has assured potential shoppers that the Wii U...

Keeping up with happenings in the gaming world can be an arduous task, especially when it seems like all people are talking about is Call of Duty. But believe it or not, there is more going on out there and it doesn't all involve shooters. So here's the breakdown of all the news that matters over the past week.
Sunday 18 November -- Arrested ArmA III devs facing jail time
In September Ivan Buchta and Martin...

In the 80s and early parts of the 90s, commercials for videogames were few and far between. When you did see them, they looked something like this:
Aside from the fact that it exuded 80s "radness", for which there is no cure, the commercial itself was just disparaging of gamers. But that's not really a surprise, ad agencies at the time were trying to sell a product to a demographic that they couldn't relate to. Playing up the stereotype was a lazy approach, but it was also the typical approach at the time.
Fortunately, as the 90s rolled in, people...

The first game I can remember playing was Pong on a console of some description, whose name escapes me, that my favourite Aunt bought in Saudi Arabia, of all places. It was a fun distraction, but I wouldn’t say it was the tipping point that led me into a life of pixels and midi audio.
The hook that got me gaming regularly was the Atari_2600 that my parents bought me and my brother -- oddly enough again bought in Saudi Arabia -- and that consumed large portions of the summer of 1985. I still wouldn't consciously identify my self...

The 3DS is not doing as well as anticipated, meaning somebody out there is in with a much better shot at finally taking the handheld gaming crown from Nintendo. With the recent announcement at the Tokyo Game Show that the PS Vita will have an astounding 26 games available when it launches in Japan in December, Sony seems poised to exploit the opportunity.
Here's a rundown of the list:
@field
Army Corps of Hell
BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend
Browser Sangokushi Touch Battle
Dark Quest
Disgaea 3 Return
Dream Club Zero Portable
Dynasty Warriors Next
F1 2011
Fish On
Hot Shots Golf 6
Katamari Damacy No Vita
Lord of Apocalypse
Michael Jackson The Experience
Minna to...

While dawdling along on the interwebs the other day, I stumbled upon a list of games released in September. And I have to say, even though I was aware of it on a subconscious level, it was really surprising to the see this list of top-tier titles coming out ahead of the Christmas crunch. Take a look at this list:
Dead Island
Resistance 3
Warhammer 40 000: Space Marine
Driver: San Francisco
Gears of War 3
FIFA 2012
Though it was released in August, I am going go ahead and include Deus Ex: Human Revolution in with that list as well as most people would have...

One of the first pieces I wrote for the .Burn suite of websites was titled "How the Nintendo Wii is ruining gaming", an admittedly unnecessarily sensationalist title. The piece basically laid out my fears that the introduction of Microsoft's ground-breaking Kinect (and to a lesser degree Sony's Move) would follow a similar trajectory as the Wii before it. Almost a year on? I was right.
The basic thesis was that the device would introduce to us a truly phenomenal piece of technology whose potential would be squandered on simplistic sport sims, mini-game compendiums, fitness games and tacked-on usage or...

The closing chapter of a trilogy is always the most important. If you botch the ending, any goodwill you may have manufactured in the opening chapters are for naught. Just look at the Matrix trilogy if you want an example of how a weak ending can mess it up.
Unfortunately for Resistance, as far as the narrative is concerned this series is more Matrix than Lord of the Rings. Thankfully, games are more than just plot twists and mcguffins.
Fight or Die
Resistance 3 stars Joe Capelli, who replaces previous franchise lead, Nathan Hale, for reasons that become abundantly clear in the...

True remakes in games. Why so few? Hollywood loves remaking the same stuff ad nauseum, whereas game studios just rewarm or port over. While I was contemplating the metaphysical implications of rehashes, it occurred to me that this is something you don't often see in videogames: the straightforward remake. Not a reboot or port to a handheld, but taking an existing game and making it all over again using the latest technology, but keeping the same plot and gameplay elements and changing as little as possible. Sort of like an HD directors cut, if you will.
Rehashes and rewarms are...

Imagine for a moment that you've decided to spend your money on… something, anything really. A car, a cellphone, an iPad, a haircut, pay TV service, whatever. Now imagine for a second that an intrinsic part of that transaction gives whoever you are trading with the right to enter your home and rummage through your personal belongings and those of your kids. And they can do this with impunity.
Furthermore, not only would they be able to do that, they would be able to extend that right, perhaps at a price, to anyone of their choosing. Would you still participate...